Rather's latest outrage
By Murray Soupcoff
web posted March 25, 2002
Well, there they go again. Steeped in the moral relativism that's
already made them clueless to the real meaning of 9/11, Dan
Rather and CBS News have once again demonstrated their
absolute lack of judgement regarding the appropriate role of
responsible American journalists. According to a news report in
a London daily (we didn't actually see the objectionable TV
event we're about to describe), CBS News provided air time for
an exclusive CBS interview with a murderous bunch of al-Qaida
and Taliban survivors of Operation Anaconda, hiding in a cave
nearby.
According to the London report, this exclusive interview was
conducted "under great secrecy with a nightscope, which
illuminated the armed and scowling figures in an unearthly pallor."
Some of the choice quotes from the militant interviewees
included: "Revenge is in the air" and "Disappearing from the
battlefield does not mean that the Taliban has gone." And the
theme of this anti-American chatfest was that the al-Qaida and
the Taliban weren't quite finished yet, and that Americans could
expect a terrible defeat in the future (so all you worrywarts out
there in TV Land, write your Congressman to bring our boys
back home before they're wiped out in another Vietnam-style
disaster).
Well, thanks Dan for that informative, patriotic update.
Obviously, your main intent was to embarrass the Pentagon, and
secondarily the Bush administration, by unsubtly suggesting that
Pentagon officials engaged in some hypebole when they
described the Anaconda operation as a huge success in
eliminating the al-Qaida threat in that region. And secondarily it
gave you and your cohorts yet another chance to provide some
free publicity for your latest anti-American idols, all those plucky
al-Quaeda freedom fighters from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the
United Kingdom defending the Afghan people against the nasty
American invaders.
Oh dear, that does raise another troubling issue, doesn't it? After
the events of 9/11, and the murderous al-Qaida assault on
thousands of unarmed civilians in New York City, aren't those
gritty al-Qaida fighters the enemy of the United States? Isn't the
United States currently at war with these hate-filled henchmen of
Osama bin Laden?
What? Oh, I see. You still don't get it. After all, in your mind,
you were just trying to do your job of reporting the news and
showing what might have been a somewhat different slant on the
war in Afghanistan. After all, it would never have occurred to
you or CBS News, after tracking down these fleeing al-Qaida
and Taliban fighers, to quickly alert the United States military
command in Afgahnistan (or even in Washington) -- so that the
U.S. military could scramble some aircraft and bomb the hell out
of the cave these terrorists were hiding in, before these hate-filled
fanatics got a second chance to ambush American military
personnel in the region, or perhaps be recruited for a future
terrorist assault on defenseless American cities.
Just like the brain-dead CNN journalists who pioneered this
kind of fifth-column collaboration with the enemy during the Gulf
War, you just don't seem to get it: that you should be Americans
first and journalists second when dealing with avowed enemies of
your country, armed combatants who are dedicated to killing
American soldiers and civilians. After all, would Edward R.
Murrow have thought it appropriate to fly to occupied France
after D-Day and broadcast an exclusive radio interview with a
contingent of irascible Nazi soldiers on the run, on why American
forces should withdraw from Europe (and save American lives)
before the invincible Nazi military machine rolled them back into
the sea?
Of course not. But then you're not Edward R. Murrow. You're
Dan Rather and you live by another journalistic ethic -- that the
enemy of your ideological enemy must be your friend. And we
know who your ideological enemy is: none other than the
President of the United States who has had the gall to hold onto
a set of conservative values that just drive you up a wall.
And so, in your muddled mind, if the remaining al-Qaida and
Taliban forces in Afghanistan have turned out to be the last hope
for politically embarrassing this popular Republican president,
then the al-Qadea and Taliban must be your friends. And hence
they must get all the free publicity they can get, along with a
public forum for their fanatical, hate-filled anti-American views.
A bit of advice, Dan. You appear to have gotten a little senile
lately anway. So maybe it's time to retire your own personal war
on America and go fishing or something. These days, nothing will
suit you so well as permanent retirement.
Murray Soupcoff is the author of 'Canada 1984' and a former
radio and television producer with the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation. He also was Executive Editor of We Compute
Magazine for several years, and is now the Managing Editor of
the popular Canadian conservative Web site, Iconoclast.ca.
Enter Stage Right - http://www.enterstageright.com